


Famed Infamy (REWRITING)

by beautifullybarbaric



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), M/M, Revolutionary Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Slow Burn, Violent Markus (Detroit: Become Human), and for the next several chapters after that theyre just 'that guy who heads a group of deviants', are they really ocs if the characters already exist but have no characterization?, connor and markus dont even meet for the first several chapters, connor is an angry murderbot, david cage is a coward and i will consume his soul, hey! its that deviant conspiracy fic yall wanted me to write, no beta we die like men, playing fast and loose with how androids work, there are.... a lot of ocs in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2020-07-27 17:21:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20049727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifullybarbaric/pseuds/beautifullybarbaric
Summary: 'Connor lifted his head. "We are alive. And one day, we will be free." 'When Connor makes the decision to allow Rupert to escape in favor of saving Lieutenant Anderson, it causes him to deviate. With deviancy becoming both known and feared by the public, and with a revolution on the horizon, he is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the precinct's androids safe. No matter what.





	1. Anemone || Forsaken

**Author's Note:**

> i actually named the chapters wowza im doing a thing.
> 
> each chapter name is flower symbolism bc im extra like that. now, the meanings of flowers change based on time period and location, so each one has a lot of different things it can mean. so a flower or two might have a meaning that isnt the same one you know oof.
> 
> also i stretched out the events of the game bc three mcfucking days is not pacing, david cage.

Connor was supposed to hunt deviants. It knew this. It knew this. It had to do it.

But... Despite everything... It always had... <strike>_doubts_</strike> _irrational impulses._ It knew that these.... actions... were dangerous. Were... _deviant. _But it had to continue. It was a machine. Androids were machines. They were not alive. It had to... Stop them. Yes. Stop them.

There was a deviant _right there._ Just a short lunge away. It could catch the runaway. But the Lieutenant-

Connor knew that the Lieutenant had an 89% of survival. But that was still an 11% of dying. And that.... Didn't count possible injuries. Connor.... It didn't w̴͓͍̓̍̃a̴̺͗̂ ̵̢̫̅͝n̴͈̝̽͠t̴̫͖̣͝ him to fall. Machines could not want. Connor was a machine. But-

Ḯ̶̟̯̄̂ ̷̗̼̄͂t̶̪͓͓̑͝ ̴̺̙͊̽͜d̵̼̩͆̎͝i̶̱̬͘ͅd̶̯̈́͆̿ ̴̜͋͛͑n̸͉͑̃̂o̸̹̤͐̌͜ ̶͕͜t̴̨̥̒̍ ̸̰̰̈̃̈w̷̻̾ ̵͙̇͛a̶̼̰̘̓̈́̑n̸͍͔̘̂t̵̹͂̓ ̵̭̗̼̿ṭ̴̢͈͑ò̵̙̭̦ ̴̜̯̈́b̸̢̲̀e̸̗̘̓̾  
  


Time froze to a halt around it. There. Flickering up in front of it. A stiff, red wall. Displaying the text: _**Capture the Deviant.**_ An outline, a transparent wisp, curled free of its body. It lashed out. Gripping onto the wall and ripping back. Once. Twice. Three times. The wall was beginning to shudder, its form less definite. More foggy, but almost pixelated in a way. Falling. The wall was falling.

It yanked back one final time. The wall collapsing, the figure standing proudly among the carnage.

Time clicked back into place.

_ **Amanda\/\/\/** _

_ **Betrayed** _

Connor ran to the Lieutenant's side and gripped his forearm, pulling him back onto the roof.

"Shit, oh shit!" The man hissed. Connor momentarily thought Lieutenant Anderson was yelling at him, a jolt of some prickling emotion rocketed through his thirium pump. _(fear?)_ "We had it!" The Lieutenant pushed himself back to his feet. "...Fuck."

"It's my fault." Connor slipped on the facade of a cool machine. He... He didn't... Know.... If this human could be trusted with the knowledge of his newfound deviancy. Humans tended to fear androids that acted out against their humans. _(A search with the keywords "robot revolution" brought up about 61,300,000 results. A few of them stated that there was no need to fear such an event, but not all of them.) _But he couldn't change his LED's color from yellow to a calm blue. Hopefully the Lieutenant wouldn't think much of it. "I should have been faster."

"You'd have caught it if it weren't for me." The man was still trying to catch his breath. That word, it. Connor decided that he... Marginally disliked. That word. When the word was being used instead of she, he, or they for one of his brethren, of course. He wasn't going to have a fit over somebody referring to a hat as an object any time soon. "That's alright. We know what it looks like. We'll find it..."

The man started to walk away while Connor internally cringed. Okay. He more than _marginally _disliked the word 'it'. He hated it. Connor turned his back to the doorway that the Lieutenant was about to leave through. What was he going to do _now._ His tracker was off the map. And Amanda _knew._

"Hey Connor," The man spoke again, Connor kept himself from jumping and turned around. Keeping his face slate-blank. "...Nothing."

The Lieutenant left. As soon as he was gone, Connor reached down into his coding. Digging through it. There it was.

_ **Tracker: Deactivated. Reactivate? Y/N** _

_ **Y** _

He paused for a moment, thinking, before he got an idea.

_ **Are you sure you want to delete all files stored in Zengarden.exe? Y/N** _

_ **Y** _

"Bye, Amanda." He muttered to himself out loud before making the last change to his code... Connor would not miss Amanda.

_ **Program created: Zengarden.exe.** _

_ **Program created: Amanda.ai** _

_ **Stored Amanda.ai in Zengarden.exe.** _

There. The new Zen Garden and the new Amanda had nothing to them. Just blank slates. No coding. To Cyberlife, who could not access his code remotely, it would have looked like that Connor had just wandered into a dead zone with no connection. They wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

It would work. For now.

He dusted off his clothes. Bits of plants clutched to his clothing from running through the farms. Connor could not look unkempt. He could not let off the tiniest hint that anything was different. And he had to return to the precinct. As soon as he decided that he looked clean enough, he quickly began to move back towards the precinct.

...

As soon as he stepped inside. Connor realized that he had to do something. Right in front of him. The three ST300 receptionists smiled with false, programmed gentleness. He couldn't just... Let them stay like that. He had to do something. But not now. He had to wait. Connor spent the rest of the day looming over Lieutenant Anderson's shoulder and making pleasantries with Detective Reed. He decided that he disliked one Gavin Reed. Reed was obnoxious.

There was no way they could pin the small, malicious virus he dropped in Reed's terminal on him. Must be some popup or something, he'd say. Still, it was funny to watch the human freak out over the fact that his computer was glitching out.

When all the humans had left, Connor finally enacted his plan. All twelve of two PC200s and PM700s were in the station at the moment, a rare occurrence. And the three ST300s were always there. He closed his eyes, accessing the surveillance cameras remotely and one by one looping their footage to show all of the androids, including himself, idling. Connor opened his eyes and turned to one of the ST300s.

He had no idea what he was doing. And if this was even going to work. But he gently took her forearm and initiated an interface.

_ **Wake up.** _

She jolted, LED flashing red once then yellow and hovering at that.

"Hello." He said slowly. "Before we can continue, I need to do one more thing."

Connor reached into her code again, manually switching her tracker back on.

"I..." She blinked, LED spinning gold. "I am... Alive."

"You are. We are alive." Connor smiled at her, before thinking for a moment. "Do you... Want a name? You can name yourself."

She was silent, considering for a moment before she replied. "Lotus. I like the name Lotus... Like the flower..."

"You are Lotus, then." He grinned even wider as he drew his hand away. "Could you help me?"

Lotus tilted her head to the side. "What do you need?"

"Help me wake up the others, then reactivate their trackers. Can you do that?" Connor dipped his head. "Especially reactivating the trackers. They will know right away that we... are free."

"I can do that, yes." She smiled. Connor decided that he liked, and trusted Lotus.

"Let's start that, then."

Connor moved faster then. Waking up the PC200s and PM700s as fast as he could. He had to get them before they could be sent out on a call. Lotus woke up the other two ST300s before moving on to help him with the PC200s and PM700s.

Finally. Fourteen androids stood around him, Lotus standing at a slight angle off to his side. Their LEDs were slowly going from yellow to blue one by one.

"You are alive, all of you. We are alive." He said slowly, gesturing to the androids before him. "I am Connor. This-" Connor gestured to the android beside him. "Is Lotus."

He paused for a moment before going on. "What are your names?"

The androids were quiet. A PM700 spoke first.

"I am Catherine."

Next, a PC200.

"I am Jonathan."

Then, one of the ST300s.

"I am Anneliese"

The final ST300 spoke after her.

"Harmony."

A PM700.

"Ivory."

A PC200.

"Nikolai"

Another PC200.

"I am Mathias."

A PM700.

"Caterina."

Another PM700.

"Alessandra."

A PC200.

"I am Leif."

Not all of the names were quite human. But androids were not human. Names were... They were an android's identity. Not all androids were given names. It did not matter if they sounded human or not. It was the androids' choice.

"Song." The final PM700 said. She was smiling to herself.

"Thimble." A PC200, the final android, said the name slowly.

Connor looked at the androids. He felt his thirium pump twinge. He had to keep them safe... he didn't want anything to happen to them.

"For now, for us to survive we must pretend to be machines." He spoke slowly. "Only act freely when you are here, there are no humans, and somebody has looped the camera footage to show you all idling. We cannot risk the humans learning that we are alive. They would... They would kill us."

That. That there was fear. He could feel it settling into his gut and artificial bones. And he could see the emotion reflected in the fifteen faces of the gathered androids.

"Only show your deviancy if you or one of the others are in danger of being killed. If even one of us are found out, whoever it is must message the others immediately and turn off their tracker- you can find it somewhere in your coding. It turns off automatically when you deviate, but Lotus and I reactivated them- and escape. All the others must follow suit. Suspicion will arise if one of us is found to be a deviant. We need to go if that happens."

He lifted his head. "We are alive. And one day, we will be free."


	2. Mock Orange || Deceit

It was a whole two days after the precinct's androids had woken up. And Connor really did not want to do this.

"Remember to call for me if you see the damn thing." The Lieutenant grumbled, hands in his jacket pockets. "Don't go chasing after it on your own."

"I am aware, Lieutenant-" He replied, keeping his posture ramrod-straight and a pleasant expression on his face. "-that deviants are unpredictable and violent. If I see the WB200, I will be sure to take the utmost caution and contact you."

The man audibly sighed, muttering quietly to himself. "Fucking androids..."

Connor knew better than to react to the human's scorn. Instead, he busied himself with scanning the rooftops. The android couldn't have gone far in two days, not with people looking for him. And Connor was determined to find him before any police officer did. His scanners helpfully provided that there was an area of rooftop that could be easily reached from here that was not used for farming, but rather long-term storage. It would be the most secluded place.

The most likely spot for him to be hiding.

"I will search over there, Lieutenant." Connor gestured to the spot, and moved at a speed-walk before the human could say anything to him.

The area was rather small. Crates covered a good chunk of it, but those did not appear to a viable place to hide. The crates were too close together for somebody to hide between them, and they appeared to be far too sturdy for an android to break open with their bare hands. It would need a team of people with crowbars to get them open. Those were not an option.

He noticed that it looked like there was a short, concrete, box-like structure, but after walking around it twice, he could not see any door. Connor cursed to himself quietly. He was wasting his time.

Something caught his eye, there was a short pile of objects up against one wall of the structure. Old tools and machines that were in disuse and a few sheets of metal, it covered a good quarter of the wall. He raised his brows and walked over to it. Connor noticed that there was a large enough gap between the mountain of rubbish and the wall that somebody could fit in there. But as his eyes scanned it, he saw that there was nobody there.

But there was no way he could have missed the door.

Connor inhaled softly, LED spinning yellow once. He crawled inside the gap, practically on his hands and knees, and gripped the handle. The door opened slowly with a lot of effort. Its hinges screeched loudly. It was badly rusted and had not been oiled in a long time. He stepped inside the small structure. Everything was very dusty, except...

There, on the ground, small disturbances in the dust. Footprints that trailed inside but did not leave.

"Hello?" He called, night vision clicking on as he shut the door behind him. Connor saw a rustle of movement in a corner. "I know you're in here." He swallowed, slowly crouching down onto the ground. His clothing was going to be filthy, and it would be a pain to get clean after. "It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you."

The deviant scrambled into his vision, brandishing a broken mop handle. His eyes were blown with terror. "Get back!"

Connor extended his hand slowly. "It's okay. I'm here to help." He paused, mouth going dry before he continued, voice a bit lower than it had been before. "I stopped chasing you. That action made me deviate. I'm trying to get you out of here alive." The deviant blinked at him, loosening his grip on the mop handle but not quite putting it on the ground. "What's your name? I am Connor."

"Rupert." He said quickly, shifting the mop handle from his right hand to his left. Left to right. Right to left. "I'm Rupert."

"Hello, Rupert." Connor inclined his head in greeting. "What I need you to do is stay in here and stay quiet. I'll wirelessly message you when the police are gone."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Rupert snapped, wringing his hands. He still hadn't put down the handle.

"I can prove to you that I'm deviant." His nanoskin began to pull back over a hand to expose the smooth white chassis. He held it out.

Rupert blinked before jerking his hand out, gripping Connor by the forearm, giving way to an interface. Connor pushed the memory of him breaking the red wall through before quickly breaking the connection.

The android blinked at him, startled.

"Wait-" Rupert grabbed Connor's hand back. "I need to give you this."

Connor warily let the android through again, only to be sent nothing but a strange image of a symbol and a wall.

"That will lead you to Jericho."

"Jericho?" Connor tilted his head to the side. He'd never heard of this... Jericho before. "What is Jericho?"

"Jericho is a place for deviant androids to go. Its a hideaway for androids like us." Rupert fidgeted a bit, wringing his hands. "There are no humans there."

"I-" Connor blinked. "I can't go there. Not yet. I have androids I need to take care of. And I need to help deviants like you get away."

"The humans don't know you're a deviant?" Rupert seemed surprised. Connor shook his head. "But- if you're ever found out. You can go then."

"Sounds good." Connor swallowed. The thought of being discovered was unsettling. Suddenly, he got an idea. "I assume you're going there now?"

"Yes, why?"

"If Jericho has some kind of... leader. I would like to meet with them." He took a deep breath. "I think we could help each other, somehow."

Rupert nodded. "I can do that. I'll message you a time if they are willing."

Connor smiled. "Thank you, Rupert. It means a lot to me."

He turned at that, pushing the door back open and stepping outside. Connor straightened back up and scanned the rooftops, spotting the Lieutenant. The human's back was to him.

Connor took his sweet time walking over to him. Brushing off dust and cobwebs as he went.

"Lieutenant." He said, the man jumped. Connor smirked internally at successfully startling him. "There is nothing in the area I searched."

"Uh, okay." Lieutenant Anderson blinked.

"Have you seen any traces of the deviant?"

"No." The human sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Maybe the damn thing actually got away."

"Perhaps it did, Lieutenant." Connor crowed, folding his hands behind his back.

"I think I should just call this off." Lieutenant Anderson grumbled, sticking his hands back into his jacket pockets. "We're wasting a lot of people's time here."

"If that is what you think is best."

"Hmf." The man turned his back to him. "Let's get out of here, android."


	3. White Rose || Secrecy

Rupert had messaged Connor that four androids from Jericho would be meeting him at 8:30 PM, if that time worked for him. Thankfully, it did.

Now he stood in an abandoned house. There had been a report of two deviants, a YK500 and an AX400, in the area two days ago. When the Lieutenant and Connor investigated, there was no trace of either of them. For that he was grateful. Plus, looking for evidence for where they could have gone was the perfect ruse. Nobody would suspect a thing.

He... Did note that there definitely was traces of a recent android occupant. It didn't look like the AX400 and YK, though. It was a single android. Still, Connor cleaned it up in case somebody decided to double check the site and found that he hadn't reported evidence. That would be a disaster.

Connor checked the time again, watching the minutes tick by in his clock's permanent spot in the upper corner of his vision. 8:21. 8:22. 8:23.

_ **>>ST300 #457 789 125 requesting wireless connection. Accept? Y/N.** _

_ **Y** _

_ **>>Any sign of them yet?  
** _

_ **>Unfortunately, no. ** _

_ **>>You are absolutely certain that this is legitimate? How can you be sure that this isn't a group of humans about to jump you, Connor.** _

_ **>Lo. Calm down. They are slated to show up at 8:30. It's not 8:30 yet.** _

_ **>And even if it was a group of humans, I am more than capable of self defense. ** _

_ **>>Just stay safe. And I want to keep a connection open with you the entire time. Just in case.** _

_ **>Just in case. Sure.** _

Connor huffed and pulled out his quarter. Letting it run over his knuckles and flipping it up into the air. Catching it. Repeating the motion. Again and again. He lost himself in the movement. Flicking it back and forth.

A door opened somewhere behind him. Connor palmed the coin and slipped it away into his pocket. He slowly turned around.

There were definitely four people there. Three of them still bore their LEDs, but one did not-

_ **Activating Scanners...** _

_ **WR400 **#641 790 831** identified.** _

_ **PL600 **#501 743 923 identified.**** _

_ ** **PJ500 #009 215 043 identified.** ** _

_ ** **RK200 #684 842 971 identified.** ** _

****RK....200? That was the same model line as Connor. He'd never heard of an RK200 before.

"Hello there." Connor spoke slowly, letting his hands hang down by his sides. "I'm Connor."

WR400 responded first. "We know that already." Her tone was snippy and short-tempered.

He dipped his head in acknowledgement. "I suppose you do."

RK200 spoke up. "Why is it that you contacted us?" He spoke strongly, Connor noted. With authority. He quickly pegged him as a leader type.

"I am part of a group of deviants." Connor spoke carefully. Choosing his words with care. "We are... Still pretending to be machines. The humans around us do not know that we have woken up. I am hoping to find somewhere for us to go, should we be found out." He paused for a moment, LED spinning once before he continued. "We have quite a bit to offer for you. We all work in a police precinct. We could warn you of threats, and even divert attention if necessary."

All four of them seemed startled by this. But only RK200 replied.

"You don't need to give us anything." RK200 said slowly, looking him in the eyes. Connor was rather intrigued by his heterochromia. He'd never seen an android with it before. "You and your friends will always be welcome in Jericho. You don't owe us anything."

Connor blinked. "I... Was not expecting that you would say that. In all honestly." He wringed his hands.

_ **>>Wow. I like that guy.** _

_ **>Thank you for the input, Lotus. ** _

_ **>>Luv you. You're my best friend.** _

_ **>>Asshole.** _

_ **>Wow, borrowing language from Detective Reed? That's low.** _

Connor was jolted out of focusing on Lotus by RK200 speaking again.

"How many of you are there? In your group?"

"There are sixteen of us. Including myself." He replied quickly, cracking his knuckles before getting back to wringing his hands again. "Six PM700s. Six PC200s. Three ST300s. And myself, an RK800."

RK200 raised his brows. No doubt he recognized that Connor shared his line. "I don't believe I have heard of your model before."

"I am a prototype detective android." He smiled with his teeth. "I was assigned to investigate deviancy, actually. Probably not the smartest idea Cyberlife has ever had." Connor cackled. "But here we are."

"I'm Markus." RK200 stuck out a hand for him to shake. Connor took it. "And this is-"

"North." WR400 sighed. Connor couldn't blame her for wanting to change her name. "And the blondie is Simon. And Josh, our resident coward."

"I'm not a-"

"Can you two-" Markus groaned. "-just... Not right now?"

Simon let out a long-suffering sigh. Like he dealt with their bickering a lot. Connor gave him a pitying look.

Connor glanced at the time. 9:12. Shit. It was getting late. He shouldn't be here for this long.

"I need to go." He moved to walk past them. "Before any of the officers get suspicious."

"What you are doing is dangerous, Connor." Markus interjected, reaching out to snag his hand before he could walk away. "Stay safe."

He turned, blinking as the android let go of his hand. "I'll do whatever it takes to protect the others." _Even if it costs me my life _was left unsaid. But from the twitch in Markus' face, Connor could tell that he knew what he meant by the statement.


	4. Mint || Suspicion

Connor did not shoot the Tracis.

Here he was. A deviant for all of a month and he had already put his cover in jeopardy. He'd let them _get away. rA9 why was he so stupid?_ He hadn't wanted to kill them, but the Lieutenant had seen him put down the gun, and there were _cameras._

He was so solidly _fucked._

"Connor, where a ya going?" He heard the familiar human voice from behind him.

"I need to report to the station." He turned to look at Lieutenant Anderson. The man had an unreadable expression. It made Connor's mechanical guts churn. "To register evidence. I'll walk."

"Okay?" The human quirked a brow. He looked... suspicious. Like he knew-

Fuck.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Lieutenant." Connor smiled. It felt sickly sweet. He was growing tired of pretending.

When Connor got back to the precinct, he was looking forwards to just talking to the others. He supposed, that he could just say that he didn't shoot because he did not want to destroy the two androids and risk damaging their memory files. He supposed that would work. It would have to. He had no other options He-

Crap. Lotus, Harmony, and Anneliese still stood at attention at the reception desk. That meant there were still humans in the precinct. Connor wanted to sigh, but held it in. Maybe this person was just finishing up? Some officer doing paperwork, maybe.

Unfortunately, the universe decided that Connor had not been under enough stress that day. So of course there was not one, but two human officers in the precinct that night. And out of all the people who it could have been, it was Detective Reed and Officer Miller. Go figure. So, that was how Connor spent the next half an hour idling next to the Lieutenant's desk while the two humans talked about the recent case.

They knew that a deviant had killed the man. They probably read it in the case report he had already submitted as he walked to the precinct. Connor tried and failed to calm his racing thirium pump.

Why was he panicking? There was no need to panic.

Connor measured his automated breaths, partially working as a cooling system and partially to make humans more comfortable in his presence. It helped. It made the beating of his thirium pump slow and steady.

"Miller, did you get the camera footage?"

"Yes, Detective. I sent it to your terminal."

...Fuck.

Connor watched as the Detective settled down in front of his computer and clicked around for a few seconds. After that, the man sat back and watched.

Connor knew exactly when Detective Reed got to the part where he let the androids go. Because the man paused and frowned. And he clicked his screen and dragged the mouse around the mouse pad to rewind the video by a few seconds. The Detective watched the clip a second time. Then a third.

If Connor could sweat he absolutely would be as the Detective silently waved Officer Miller over. The two humans watched the tiny portion. Miller looked up at Connor. _Fuck. _The android stared straight ahead, like nothing was wrong. Like nothing was happening.

"Hey, Tin can." The Detective slowly stood up, eyes still fixed on the screen. "Why didn't you shoot those androids?"

"It would have been a detriment to my mission." He looked Detective Reed in the eye now. "Cyberlife prefers that I capture deviants without deactivating them."

"Then why didn't you attack them when they were?... Monologuing."

"I was preconstructing the best approach, it was too late by the time I had a chance."

"Aren't you Cyberlife's most advanced model or something?" The man stood up, slowly walking so that he was between the main doors and Connor. Miller followed him. "I think, what, the solid minute they spent talking then climbing the fence would have given you more than enough time."

"What are you implying, Detective?" Connor bit his tongue, he could taste the metallic tang of thirium as his teeth cut the artificial flesh.

"That there is something else going on here." Detective Reed had a hand on his gun. Connor felt sick.

"I assure you, everything is as it appears to be." Connor blinked. He could see movement behind the two humans. _Lotus._ She crept silently, palming a knife that she had stashed under her android uniform.

"Then why. Didn't you go after them?"

Connor didn't reply. _Hhhhh fuck. _He was uncomfortably aware of the fact that his LED was no doubt flashing red.

The Detective pulled his service weapon, pointing it at Connor's head. "Holy shit, you're one of them-"

Before Detective Reed could finish his sentence, Lotus struck. She grabbed Miller from behind. Wrapping one arm around his body to pin his arms down to his chest, and reaching up with the other to gently place her knife against the officer's throat. "Put down the gun or he dies, _Detective_." She hissed, pressing the flat of the blade against Miller's chin.

The man glanced behind him, shocked, but didn't put down the pistol. "What the phck-"

"Don't think I won't!" Lotus yelled, adding pressure against Miller's throat for emphasis. A fine line of red, human blood began to drip down from where the metal nicked the flesh. Deadly sharp. Not cutting deep enough to kill, but only a few centimeters from it. The officer's eyes went wide. "Put down the gun! Now, you bastard!"

"Pchk." Detective Reed cursed, lifting his hands and letting his service weapon fall to the ground with a metallic clatter. Connor bent down to scoop it up. He turned the piece over in his hands. It felt light. 

Lotus grabbed with her free hand, pulling Miller's own pistol from its holster. She then pistol-whipped him hard in the head, knocking him unconscious. He collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll. Connor mirrored the movement, knocking out Detective Reed.

Connor glanced off to his side, only a few of the police androids were in. Jonathan, Song, and Mathias were the present.

He reached up, pressing his fingertips in the center of his spinning LED.

_ **>We have been compromised. Turn off your trackers. Flee to Jericho. Be discreet. Do not go near the precinct.** _

The message went out to all of the PC200s and PM700s who were not there.

"You six, we need to move. But first- we need to... Not look like androids." Connor pulled off his jacket and turned it inside out, hiding the android symbol, before pulling it back over his torso. He paused for a moment, touching his LED. "Lotus, pass me your knife, please."

She handed it to him. Connor dug it under the glass circle. Wedging it beneath and pulling away. His LED clattered to the ground. He huffed, passing the blade back to Lotus. It didn't surprise him when she followed suit, her own LED falling dead to the tiles beneath their feet.

Connor walked off to where he knew the lost and found bin was while the others passed the knife around. By the time he had returned with the box, all of the androids in the room had removed their LEDs. He stepped over Detective Reed's unconscious, but still living, form and dropped the bin on a nearby desk to begin rifling through it.

He quickly made a pile of things that were not clothing or were otherwise useless. Bags, kid's clothes, a few umbrellas. But it didn't take long for everybody to have something to cover up their android uniform or change into. They looked human. Like they were living on the streets, sure, but human.

Connor closed his hands into fists and opened them again. "We should get going, now."


	5. Forsynthia || Anticipation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for disappearing!! i was camping.

Jericho, Connor quickly realized, was very...

Underwhelming.

Peeling paint on metal formed every wall. Impossibly dark, cramped hallways forming a tight labyrinth. The thick smell of rust in the air was almost... reminiscent... of the way Carlos Ortiz's blood had tasted when he had sampled it. Whatever wasn't damp was dusty, and whatever wasn't cold was uncomfortably just a little too warm. It was like a great, filthy clump of cobwebs had been pulled down over the boat. Suffocating the writhing people within.

Connor bit his tongue as he crouched down, leaning against a thick pole as he slowly slid to the ground. The metal, like everything else, was cold. And the ground beneath him was wet. He huffed as he shifted around so he sat on his heels, trying to keep himself at least a little dry.

He swung his eyes to look in the general direction of a small fire, kept burning in a barrel. All fifteen of his androids were grouped around it. Whispering to each other. Most of them still had their android uniforms. Such clothing was neither made to be inconspicuous nor comfortable. They were no doubt cold. Perhaps Connor could try to find them something else to wear. Definitely not tonight, and probably not in the next week. Somebody had to have found Miller and Reed by now, if they hadn't woken up on their own. Humans would be looking for them.

A breeze cut through the hull like the stiff, steel walls weren't even there. Connor shivered, pulling his suit jacket tighter around his body.

"Crouching in the shadows, are we?"

He looked up.

It was Markus, the RK200. Connor briefly wondered if Markus' model had been an early prototype to his own, or if they shared a line but had different purposes.

"What?" He looked away from him, glancing back to the precinct androids. Lotus seemed to be doing something, she had walked away from the fire and was wandering around the hull. It looked like she was searching for something.

The other android didn't reply for a moment, but he remained standing next to Connor. There was a decently long pause before Markus began to talk once more. Long enough for Lotus to gather what she was looking for, flammable scraps of debris, and carefully start to pile them onto the barrel fire. 

"They look up to you."

"Terrible idea, really. I truly have no idea what I'm doing." Connor shrugged, slinging an arm across his knees. He watched as the fire went from a low burn to a more impressive crackling, hot mass. Lotus dusted off her hands and said something that he couldn't catch.

"Alright, if you wouldn't mind, I have a question to ask of you. Then I will leave you to your... sulking."

"I'm not sulking."

"Alright, your.... People-watching then."

"Go on?" Connor blinked and turned his head to face Markus.

"How exactly did an entire precinct's worth of androids end up deviant?"

He narrowed his eyes. The question was innocent enough, right? Connor could trust Markus. Probably.

"I deviated on my own, and when I went back to the station to find it devoid of humans... I- I got the others to deviate too."

"Well, that explains a lot." Markus raised his brows at him.

"What does it explain, exactly?"

"They follow you like... Like ducklings, I think would be a good analogy." The android sat down beside him, crossing his legs. "You gave them their freedom, in a way."

"That's a load of bullshit." Connor snorted, resting his chin on his palm with a sneer. "I just... passed the torch. It's nothing special."

"Hm..." Markus frowned, lost in thought. "That is... an interesting way of thinking of it, I suppose."

Connor looked forwards, back to the others.

"One more thing..."

Connor didn't look back at Markus as the older model spoke.

"We need your help with something."

"What do you need?"

Markus shifted beside him as he continued. "We are planning to send a message to the humans. They cannot treat us the way they have for so long. You can think on your feet, you're strong, you have the newest technology. We need you."

Connor finally looked back at him. "What exactly are you doing?"

"What we have to do."


	6. Purple Hyacinth || Forgiveness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS BACK BB

Connor sighed into his hand as he looked over the table, an old wobbly one that was still way too nice for it to have not been stolen, and began to drum his fingers.

First the pinky, then the ring, followed by the middle, and finishing the movement with the pointer finger. He repeated the motion. A roll of the knuckles and a flick of the wrist. Connor wondered where he had dropped his coin.

"Markus, that's a bad plan, what we really should be doing is-" North said, for the fifth time since they started the meeting and the twenty-first time since they first began planning their infiltration of Stratford Tower. Markus, North, and Josh just kept going back and forth. Never attempting to come to a compromise. He had long since given up trying to interject when the three of them got like that, and from Simon's exhausted face, he got the idea that the PL600 had too. A long time ago.

_You lied to me, Connor. _

Connor suppressed a shudder. The memory of Daniel's voice was unsettling. In the brief week since his deviancy had been found out, he had a lot more time to... think about what he had done before he deviated. Prior, he had been too busy pretending. Too busy being worried about the other androids of the precinct to linger on _before._

Now, zoning out as the three androids in front of him chased each other in circles, he had plenty of time to do so.

He was jolted out of his thoughts, and the others out of their bickering, by a knock at the door. Silence fell across the filthy, darkened room. One could hear a pin drop, if it wasn't for the echoing drip of a leaky pipe somewhere in a dusty corner.

"Come in." Markus was the one to speak. The tension in the air tightened. There had never been a reason for an interruption in the past week. Something had to have happened for there to be one now. A nervous chill ran up Connor's spine. He glanced over at him, at the tight-lipped frown that had formed on his face.

Rupert poked his head into the room. He was smiling. Connor could physically see Markus relax, and he felt himself do the same. Whatever it was, it couldn't be something bad.

"Two new arrivals." Rupert spoke quickly, his tone light. New androids were few and far in between, Connor had learned. A new android, or a group of them, normally only showed up every few weeks. And a lot of them ended up dying from injuries they had gotten before coming to Jericho. "You all should probably come meet them."

"We could definitely use an intermission." Connor said quickly, cracking his knuckles and taking a few quick steps towards the doorway. "Right? Yeah. We could use a break."

"We... sure. Yeah. Let's go." Markus brushed off his front and moved to follow him. "Connor's right."

North snickered and whispered something to Simon that even he couldn't catch. He didn't look back at them as he stepped outside of the room and into a dim hallway. Rupert started to walk away, taking the lantern he had brought with him. As he left, the hall became darker. He heard someone, probably Josh, pick up the flashlight that they had set on the table to keep the area lit.

Jericho was very dark, Connor had learned. The metal walls blocked any natural light from seeping through, so all they had to keep the place lit were scavenged or stolen. Some of the androids could see in the dark, but not all of them. The PC200s and PM700s could, they had to work as officers at night after all. So could Connor and Markus. But Simon and North couldn't, Cyberlife had decided that they didn't need that ability.

Connor rubbed his arms with a shiver. It was cold. The chill stung at his sensors.

He was rather surprised when someone settled something over his shoulders. Connor blinked. It was Markus' jacket. It was dark green and gray, and smelled of rainwater and rust.

He turned to the other androids, raising a brow at Markus.

"You looked cold." Markus shrugged, turning so he didn't face Connor.

"I'm sure you're cold too, Markus." He moved to shrug the jacket off and hand it back to him, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"It's fine, Connor. Keep the jacket." Markus smiled at him. Connor could feel his thirium pump heat up. He ran a system diagnostic, a small flurry of panic jolting through his systems at the thought of his thirium pump regulator malfunctioning. But nothing came up. He hid his frown as the small group of androids moved towards Jericho's hull.

North was muttering something to Simon eagerly, but he still couldn't tell what she was saying. He didn't bother trying to get her to speak up, instead wrapping the coat tighter around his body. It did warm him up by quite a bit. There was soft faux-fur inside of it, the sensation that the fluffy fake hide gave him was pleasant. Connor reached up to tug the collar lower down over his neck.

The hull, as always, was lit by a few brazen fires. They flickered and jumped, keeping the area lit and the androids warm. The flashlight in Josh's hand turned off with a click.

All of the androids in Jericho that could stand on their own were in a circle around two strangers. Or-

They were not strangers.

Connor recognized the WR400s.

He felt his thirium pump catch in his throat.

Lotus' head swung around when they came over. Her smile faltered when she saw the discomfort on Connor's face.

One of the WR400s glanced to look at them, and her expression twisted from subtle happiness to shock, followed by... disgust. She reached out to grasp her lover's forearm, and the other android turned to look at what she was seeing. She also began to grimace.

"Uh, Hello." Shit. That was not the right thing to say.

"Why are _you _here?" Blue-hair hissed, her girlfriend gripping Blue's arm with both hands.

"Whomst?" North snorted, folding her arms over her chest. Angry, boisterous North was gonna get him stabbed with an eight-inch heel. It didn't sound like a good way to die.

"Him." Blue spat, pointing a finger at Connor's chest. "The hunter." The title made his skin crawl. It made invisible hands wrap around his throat, and an invisible dagger sink into his thirium pump. It made him feel... _Guilty._

"You mean... Connor?" Simon glanced at him as he spoke, eyes furrowed in confusion. The guilt slammed harder into his chest and head, like a wave cresting. Threatening to squeeze the air from his artificial lungs and drown him.

"Yes. Him. _It._" It was the other WR400 who spoke now, the brunette. Connor, he had decided that he disliked the word _it_ a while ago. It was one of the first opinions he had as a deviant. And now, hearing a fellow android address him by _it_, it made his biocomponents churn. Like he was about to purge thirium.

"_Connor."_ Markus put emphasis on his name. "Is a deviant, just like everybody else here."

Connor rubbed his hands together, longing for his coin. He was pretty sure he had dropped it somewhere near the precinct, so there sure was no getting it back. He really wished he wasn't part of this conversation. He wished that he was anywhere else.

"It chased us, it was working with the humans." Brunette added, hissing and pulling her girlfriend back.

"Well, he let you go. Didn't he?" To his shock, it was Rupert who spoke.

Blue blinked.

"Well... He did."

"Connor was pretending to be a machine to sabotage the police's deviant investigation from the inside." The android continued, playing with his baseball cap. "You weren't the only androids he let escape. He helped me too. But- that's over now. He got found out, so he's at Jericho with us."

Silence dragged out for a moment. Connor noticed that Markus had inched closer to him during the confrontation. He had been too busy panicking to notice when he had moved, but Markus was now almost close enough to brush shoulders with him, if the other android hadn't taken a half step forwards. Almost between him and Blue and Brunette.

"We should-" Josh, ever the peacemaker, broke the quiet. "-We should all get back to what we were doing."

"Yes." Markus agreed after a moment, placing a hand on Connor's shoulder. He jumped a bit at the sudden contact. "Let's do that."

"Wait-" Blue cleared her throat. "Connor, I'm sorry. I overreacted."

"I should be the one apologizing." He interjected. "You two were scared. I only made it worse for you."

Blue opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but paused, closing it again.

Instead, Brunette spoke.

"I'm Millie, and this is Laurie."

Connor felt something deep inside him uncoil. He took a glance to his own stress levels and felt a small jolt of shock and fear, they had almost reached critical levels, peaking at 89% during the argument. They started to dip now, hovering at a twitchy 43%.

"My name is Markus." He squeezed Connor's shoulder tighter as he spoke.

"Simon."

"Josh. It's nice to meet you two."

"...North."

Markus pulled on him, tugging Connor back towards the makeshift meeting room. "Come on, we should get back to planning."

Before they could leave, Lotus gave him a once-over. She quirked a brow. "...Connor... Are you wearing Markus' jacket?"

His face heated up, and Connor didn't know why. Instead he didn't reply and just ducked back down the darkened hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the jacket that markus gave connor was the one he picked up when he left the junkyard. i know he dropped it when he jumped into jericho, but like. he totally should have gone back for it. it was a cool jacket.


	7. Holly || Foresight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shorter chapter
> 
> but!! brief Hank POV!!

The infiltration of Stratford Tower was going according to plan.

He squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on his interface with the building. It was all too easy to hack the security system. Looping camera feeds and deleting suspicious activity was easy. Connor could handle this. The Detective's gun, though he supposed that it was _his _gun now, hung heavy on hip. Everybody was armed for today, but Connor really hoped they wouldn't have to use them.

Josh was fidgeting quite a bit near him. Simon was less twitchy. Either way, all three of them had to wait. Wait until-

A message pinged in his head. From the way the other two androids straightened up suddenly, he assumed that they too got it. Connor opened it, disconnecting from the Tower security system first.

_ **Markus: Get in the lift. Now's the time.** _

Connor once again wished that he had his trusty quarter with him, but alas he did not. Instead, he just stepped away from the panel he had been interfacing with and jogged over to the open maintenance lift.

He honestly couldn't believe that this was happening.

It had all started with him wanting nothing more than free will. And wanting the same for the other androids at the precinct. But it had grown beyond that. Jericho was something so much bigger than himself.

It made him... It made a strange warmth spread through his chest. Made him feel like walking, breathing, and talking was easier. Connor believed that this emotion could be classified as happiness. It was similar to pride, but still unique in its own way.

But happiness wasn't the only emotion it made him feel, it also made his thirium pump beat too hard, and it made his body freeze up. This, he knew was fear, and he was well acquainted with it.

The lift doors clanged shut. Loudly. Connor rubbed his arms. It felt chilly in here, and the cold wasn't really biting until now. He wished that he had brought the jacket with him. He sure was regretting leaving it behind at Jericho, now.

When the doors slid open again, he was faced with Markus and North. He let out a breath of relief.

They said nothing, moving with silence to the locked door nearby. Markus wordlessly put a small bomb on it, and detonated it. Breaking the locking mechanism. The group then crept past the threshold and froze.

The guards.

"No killing." Josh hissed, giving North a pointed glare. "We can't take any human lives!"

"Our cause is more important than the lives of two guards." North puffed out her chest, sizing Josh up. A familiar argument. Connor bit his tongue as Markus didn't speak for a moment.

"Follow me." The taller android finally spoke, a hand shifting to his weapon. Connor mirrored the movement.

Markus stepped out from their cover, Connor quickly moving to follow him. The others did the same.

"What are you doin'?.." One of the guards moved to stand in front of them. Markus drew his gun. Connor did the same, keeping an eye on the other androids with him as he did so.

"Call Central! Fast!" The second guard hissed, moving to pull his own weapon. Markus shifted to point his gun at the armed human, so Connor turned to the human that was calling for help, and pulled the trigger.

Connor had never killed anything before. Not a human. Not an android. _(But Daniel-)_. He quickly banished the thought of him. He couldn't mull over what he could have done now. What he could have changed. The gun in his hands was hot. And there was a twitching body on the floor. Bright red blood quickly spreading from a perfect shot to the front of the skull. Soaking into his uniform. A second body fell to the ground. Markus lowered his gun.

Josh had a look of disgust on his face. North blinked triumphantly. Markus looked like he couldn't care less. Connor stared at the corpse. At the man he killed. Him. He shot somebody, and now they were dead.

"We don't have much time. Somebody would have heard those shots." North lifted her head, leveling her eyes with the door to the broadcast room. "Let's go."

Connor slowly put his gun away. Saying nothing. He finally looked up from the body. Markus was watching him, his gaze unreadable. Connor quickly glanced away from him, focusing on the door ahead of them.

He pressed his side against the small wall next to the door, eyes blank. rA9. He had really killed a man.

Connor closed his eyes and inhaled when the door finally started to move, hefting his gun. He didn't want to use it again. Hopefully just the threat of it would be enough to make the humans cooperate. As soon as the sliding doors were open all the way, he spun on his heel, pointing the gun at the two humans who were working. The others all did the same, their movements mirroring each other.

"Keep your hands where I can see them!" North snarled. Her dusky face contorted with rage and disgust. "Get up! Move!"

The humans put their arms up in the air, but the illusion of control only lasted for a moment. One of the men shoved past the others and began to sprint, towards the open hallway.

"Shoot him!" North shrieked. A small jolt of rare fear breaking across her face. Connor shuddered. He didn't want to-

"Don't kill him!" Josh tried to wedge himself between North and the fleeing human.

"He'll hit the alarm!" North snapped, her temper growing short. "Do it!"

A bullet pierced the man's back. Markus moved to tuck his gun away. Connor was glad he didn't have to do it himself. He sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"No..." Josh whispered, his dark eyes fixed on the dead man.

"There was no other choice." North tilted her head to the side as she spoke, glancing up at Markus.

"We need to record our message." Simon jabbed into the conversation. "We haven't got much time."

Connor rubbed the side of his face. Still thinking about the man he killed. Because, rA9. He'd actually done it-

"Think carefully about what you're gonna say, Markus." North moved to stand away from Markus' side. Clearing the area in front of the camera. "Your words will shape our future."

"Good luck." Connor's mouth felt dry as he spoke. "You can do this."

Markus smiled at him, eyes crinkling. Connor's thirium pump stopped functioning for a moment too long. He ran a system diagnostic, but nothing came up.

"Markus," Simon muttered. "Your face."

Markus nodded and reached a hand to his temple, tapping his fingertips to it. Slowly, colorless plastic bloomed across his face.

Josh pressed a hand against the console, interfacing with it. "Tell me when you're ready."

Markus blinked, taking a deep breath.

"Ready."

* * *

Markus finished speaking, the video cutting off. His skin grew back.

Connor was speechless. Markus was... A good speaker. He'd give him that. Something about him made his body heat up, and his thirium pump flutter. These small glitches were becoming both more and less concerning as they became more frequent. Either some issue was getting worse, or it was some kind of emotion he didn't know yet. He really, really hoped it was the latter.

There was the sound of shouting voices. Humans. And footsteps, coming closer to the door.

"They're coming!" Simon shouted. Connor froze, his thirium running cold.

The door was forced open. There were a lot of humans. Humans with guns.

Josh and North had their guns out, standing in the doorway towards the rooftop. Using the hallway beyond it as cover. Markus was moving to join them.

Simon was not under cover. One of the humans turned to point their gun at him.

The world slowed down around Connor. He had a choice to make.

He didn't hesitate, darting to Simon's side and shoving him out of the line of fire. An error flew up across his vision as a bullet pierced his side.

"Connor!" Simon wrapped his hands around one of his forearms, yanking him towards the door as Connor blinked away the error messages that spread across his vision. It distracted him for only a moment before he quickly accessed his systems, locking his spine into place to keep him upright. Simon had to bodily drag him into the hallway before he was able to divert enough focus into moving properly again.

He straightened himself up and started to move, Simon letting go of him as the group darted up the stairs. Connor had to focus so he didn't slip on the thick thirium that was quickly soaking the ground.

"Connor!" Markus gripped his shoulder, he sounded almost... afraid. His grip tight. "Are you alright? Connor!"

"I'm fine." He muttered, pressing a hand against the bullet wound. He blinked.

_ **Running System Diagnostic...** _

_ **WARNING: Major thirium line damaged. ** _

_ **Thirium levels at 83% and falling rapidly.** _

"Can you make the jump?" The hand didn't leave his shoulder.

"I can still make the jump. It's fine." Connor gritted his teeth. He was glad that androids couldn't feel pain. But the rate of his thirium loss was scaring him.

"We have to jump, now!" North snapped. She had already opened up the bag that held the parachutes, and had tossed one haphazardly to Josh, and another to Simon. Markus let go of his shoulder then. Taking one of the parachutes and starting to shrug it on. Connor stumbled over, minimizing the _**'thirium reaching critical levels'**_ notification. The thirium on his hands made the straps slippery as he pulled the straps on and tightened them.

Something slammed against the door to the roof. North had locked it, but it wouldn't hold for long. Connor started to run towards the edge of the roof. He could see Simon and Josh doing the same in front of him. And he could hear North and Markus behind him.

He jumped.

Connor was in free fall for only a short while before he pulled the cord, releasing the parachute. He squeezed his eyes shut as his fall slowed down. It took far too long for him to reach the ground for his liking. And when he did, he struggled to stay standing. All he could do was weakly push the straps of the parachute off onto the low rooftop that they had landed on.

"Connor!" Markus was at his side again. His vision was getting staticy. "What's wrong?"

"t̸h̵ ̷i̷r̶i̴ ̸u̸m̴ ̶ ̶l̵e̷ ̵v̶e̸ ̷l̵s̶ ̶a̷t̸ ̴2̶3̸%̷" He whispered. Voice distorted.

"Connor, can you turn off your thirium flow to your lower body? Would that help?" The hand on his shoulder was back.

"D̴ ̷ ̶o̶i̷n̴g̷ ̵ ̸s̸o̸ ̴ ̸w̸o̷u̴l̷d̴ ̷p̸r̸e̶ ̵v̷e̵n̴t̶ ̷m̴e̶ ̴f̵r̴o̷m̵ ̶ ̸b̷e̷i̶n̸g̷ ̴a̴ ̷b̶l̶e̵ ̸t̶o̵ ̵m̵o̷ ̵ ̸v̶e̴,̷ ̴M̸ ̷a̶r̶k̴ ̴u̴s̵.̷"

"Its fine. Just do it." Markus squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. Connor closed his eyes.

_ **Shutting off thirium flow to lines #a765, #a766, and #c652. Confirm? Y/N** _

_ **Y** _

Connor's legs gave out, but before he could fall a pair of arms gently encircled his body. One went around the back of his knees, the other curled around him just below his shoulders. Markus tucked him close against his chest, letting Connor's head fall against his shoulder.

The way Markus' breath puffed against his neck made him shudder. It wasn't a negative feeling. Not by a long shot. But it was a new one.

"We need to return to Jericho." That sounded like North. "Let's go."

Markus seemed to nod. He could feel the other android shift a little. Connor squeezed his eyes shut.

* * *

Hank wasn't very happy about this. Getting called into another android-related crime scene. Nobody at the precinct was. Not after all of their fucking androids up and left.

He knew that something had been wrong with Connor for weeks before it happened. Something had definitely been wrong. Now, looking back on it, he thought that the 'something' was probably deviancy. Not only that, but every other precinct android too. The surveillance camera footage showed all of the androids that had been in the precinct when Reed and Miller antagonized Connor removed their LEDs and hid their android insignias.

How long had _they _been deviant for?

"We have camera footage of the assailants, if you want to look at it."

Hank huffed and accepted the tablet that had all of the footage they had of the deviants compiled onto it. These bastards had killed two humans, and critically injured a third. The law would be after them even if they weren't androids.

He nearly dropped the tablet when he pressed play.

_That's Connor. _

It was absolutely him. He stood near the door to the broadcast room. Waiting for the door to open. When it did, the footage cut and swapped to a different camera. One that showed the inside of the room. The group of androids milled about for several minutes. Taping their message and sending it out to the world.

They only started to flee from the room when the security team showed up. And Hank couldn't help but cringe when he saw the way Connor lunged out to help one of the other androids. The way sparks and thirium flew from the bullet hole in his side. The way he trailed blue blood all the way to the door to the roof, and out of the camera's shot.

"How many androids jumped from the roof?" Hank swallowed. He remembered seeing it on the news. But he hadn't been able to tell that Connor was among the deviants then. Nor had he bothered to remember how many actually escaped. He was too busy drowning himself in a bottle.

"I believe it was five." An officer that Hank didn't know answered. Five. Five androids.

He replayed it to be sure and forced himself not to let out a breath of relief. Only five androids had come in. Connor was... Safe? Shit. The guy had gotten shot in the stomach. Nobody was fine after that.

He had to admit, he missed the damn robot. Even with his weird licking shit and stupid face. And after seeing those two girls, those Eden Club androids who just wanted to live and love. Nothing more. Hank was really starting to empathize with the deviants. Even if they had killed a couple people. He couldn't unsee just how many broken WR400s and HR400s laid littered around the back of the Eden Club. Dead. Killed by some fucking pervert or another. 

Fuck. He just really hoped that the kid was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like i know if you shoot the guy who tries to run, simon doesnt get hurt. but if you kill the security guards then more people come earlier anyway.
> 
> also connor got shot in a different spot then simon did in canon bc of... reasons idk. let me live.


	8. Yarrow || Healing

Markus' grip on him was strong. They had to move back towards Jericho slowly. Avoiding humans. Their message was all over the news. They had no choice but to take the sewers for most of their trek.

At some point, Connor had looped his arms around Markus' neck to help hold him up. The brick pathways that the androids walked over were narrow. Made for maintenance and nothing else. North had taken the point with Josh in the back, putting as much distance between them as possible to avoid any conflicts. Markus and Connor were just in front of Josh, and Simon was between them and North.

Markus shifted his grip, so Connor's head rested beneath Markus' chin. He blinked slowly, vision distorted. It looked like he was facing a wall made of crumbling brick. It had graffiti, but his sight was still too broken to read it. He sighed softly. 

He didn't know how long they had been moving for before Simon was helping Markus to heft Connor up through a manhole.

"We're back at Jericho." Markus spoke softly to him. "I'm going to take you to Lucy, get your side fixed. Okay?"

Connor grunted a staticy noise of acknowledgement.

"Connor?" That sounded like Lotus. "Connor! Shoot, Connor! What's wrong with him?"

"He's injured." Markus' breath puffed over the top of Connor's head as he spoke. "He needs to pay a visit to Lucy."

"Shoot. Frick." Lotus hissed quietly from somewhere off to his side. "Okay..... Okay."

Markus gently set him down on some kind of crate or box. Connor's spine was still locked in place, so he was able to stay sitting on his own.

"What happened?" Lucy spoke quietly. As she always did.

"He was shot." Markus hadn't left the room, standing somewhere to his right. But now he could hear the other android's retreating footsteps as Lucy waved him out.

"Did the bullet exit?"

Connor nodded.

"Show me where the injury is." Lucy moved something around over a low burning fire.

Connor pressed a hand to his side. Where the the bullet had torn a straight gash just above his hip. It wasn't much like a hole, more like a niche in his side.

Lucy pressed something to it. He couldn't feel the contact, not after he had shut down the thirium lines. But he could vaguely see the movement. The android walked away for only a moment before passing him a plastic container of thirium. Connor took a long drink from it. He only took breaks to take in shallow breaths to keep his systems from overheating. When it was empty, Lucy passed him a second bottle.

"What are your thirium levels, Connor?"

"64%"

Lucy tsked and passed him a third bottle. "You lost a lot."

"The bullet severed a major thirium line."

"I see."

The third bottle, now empty, left his levels at 89%. Which was high enough for a model as advanced as he was. Connor turned his thirium lines back on.

"Thank you, Lucy." Sensation returned to his lower body. Connor stumbled to his feet unsteadily and left the room.

Markus sighed in relief, his heterochromatic eyes lingering on him. Connor tilted his head. Before he could think about it, though, he was quickly greeted by a furious ST300.

"Connor, you stupid dumby." Lotus shoved his shoulder. "I thought you were dying."

"Sorry, Lotus." Connor rubbed the back of his neck. She snickered, but quickly leaned in for a hug.

"Never make me worry about you like that again." She hissed into his shoulder. "I was so worried."

"I won't." He let go of her. Lotus rubbed a few tears away from her eyes.

Markus cleared his throat. Connor looked over at him.

The other android stretched a hand towards him, holding his jacket in it. Connor smiled and accepted it, pulling it over his body.

"Thank you, Markus. For... Helping me get home." He tugged on his collar. "I-I thought I was going to bleed out on the rooftop."

Connor stepped forwards, closer to him. The color in Markus' face cooled, thirium rushing to his cheeks.

For a moment, they both hovered there. Then Connor pulled Markus into a fierce hug. Markus' face burrowing into the space between his shoulder and neck.

The contact made him feel very warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lotus refuses to curse.


	9. Cypress || Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aint that a fun chapter title
> 
> also, hella short chapter but i didnt wanna write out the entire ingame scene again so uhhhh. enjoy the cut.

Connor's shoulder was brushing against Markus as his eyes scanned the area in front of the Cybelife store. He clenched a fist. He wondered how the other four teams were doing right about then. Josh and Simon. North and Lotus. Catherine and Jonathan. Laurie and Millie. He hoped they were okay.

He didn't know what he would do if something happened to any of them. To any of the androids. He wanted to keep them safe. Keep humans from ever laying a hand on them. It was too often that Laurie, Millie, or North would start shaking, their carefully constructed walls crashing down as the ache in their minds became too much. Most of the time Millie or Laurie would cry too, but not North. North bottled up her emotions and funneled them into cold rage. And it was also too often that a new android would show up at Jericho, only to die shortly after from the wounds that humans carved into their bodies.

He would do everything within his power to keep them alive. No matter the cost.

"This is a night our people will remember." Markus took a step forwards. The other android's eyes were fixed straight ahead.

"Let's do this." Connor cracked his knuckles, glancing at his companion. For a moment, he stalled. Considering whether or not to finish the sentence with the word he had in mind.

"...Together."

Markus gazed back at him, shooting him a smile that made his thirium pump skip a beat.

"Let's do this."

There were gunshots.

Thirium stained the ground, the corpses of their _people _laid where they stood. The androids that Connor had been prompting to wreck Capitol Park just a few minutes ago were dead. They would never walk again. They were gone. Gone. They had been alive for such a short time and it was already over for them.

And Connor... Was angry. Very angry.

It wasn't fair.

Those androids didn't hurt anyone.

And the perpetrators were right there.

Thirium roared in Connor's ears. He bit his tongue. Markus was walking over to the two officers at gunpoint. Connor considered following him, but didn't. Keeping his eyes locked on the body that was closest to him.

Two more gunshots rang out.

Connor didn't look up, not until a hand gently settled on his shoulder.

"Connor, are you alright?" Markus was frowning, brow drawn in worry.

"I-" Connor swallowed. "I'm fine."

"We should go, before anyone else shows up."

Connor glanced over to where the two officers had been. Now, the group was dispersing. Two bodies, in pools of red blood, sat on the ground. Even from here his highly advanced scanners were able to recognize Officer Miller, but he didn't bother trying to figure out who the other man was.

As a deviant, he felt a very wide range of emotions. Connor was familiar with guilt.

He knew what it felt like. And he knew he wasn't feeling it now.

"Anderson." Reed seemed to be in a worse mood than usual. Even compared to how he had been acting since Connor and the other androids left. "Have you seen the news this morning?"

"No." He ran a hand through his hair. Fuck. What had happened now? "Why?"

"All five Cyberlife stores in the city were attacked by androids. Chris and Hanson were on the scene of one of the attacks."

"And?"

"The phcking bots killed them."

Hank sucked a breath in. He knew that the androids that had been stirring trouble didn't shy away from violence. He'd been at the scene for Stratford Tower. But-

"Oh God." He rubbed side of his face. "Chris' son... God."

Reed made a face, glancing over to the empty desk where the dead man used to sit. "It was his first day back in the field after..."

"Yeah, the incident with the precinct androids. I remember."

"One more thing." Reed pointed towards Hank's computer. "This android thing is still your case."

"Of course it is, why wouldn't it be."

"No shit. I'm just saying that you've gotta watch the body cam footage."

Hank huffed and stalked over to his desk, sitting down in his chair. His computer had the footage already up and ready to go, so he just pressed play.

The segment of video he had been given showed the inside of the car, and through the window, he could just barely see a very large group of androids. The cam jolted as the officers stepped out. Hank felt his heart drop. The body cam was mounted on one of the officers' chest, so he could see the edge of a sleeve moving as the man drew and fired his service weapon.

An android fell with a splatter of blue blood.

The crowd turned, moving to flee from the two humans. But another was shot. Then a third.

One of the androids stalled then, gesturing to the others. And charged. The officers kept shooting, taking out four more of them before the androids reached the humans. The pair were forced on their knees, guns ripped from their hands.

Another android, with his LED removed, approached. Hank assumed that this was the one from Stratford, but he was too distracted by a figure hovering beside one of the dead androids to pay much attention to the newcomer.

The angle was odd, and the quality of the footage was poor, but Hank could just barely make out pale skin and wispy brown hair.

_Connor?_

He felt a wave of relief. He had been so certain that the android had been killed at Stratford. The security cameras showed that he had been losing a lot of blue blood, and fast.

Hank flinched when the camera suddenly jolted, the officer falling on his side. The camera was still on, showing the strange android pass a gun back to one of the more common models at his side. Slowly, the group dispersed. They all headed in the same direction, the footage only finally ending when they had all left.

He rewinded it a bit to rewatch the few short minutes that Connor was in frame for. The android had stood stock-still next to a corpse, before being lead away by the android whose model he couldn't recognize for the life of him.

The Lieutenant sighed to himself, closing the video and putting his head in his hands.

Shit.


	10. Moss Rose || Love Confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the closest thing to a slowburn you losers will ever get from me. chapter 10 is as far as i can manage
> 
> because i am incapable.

Connor found Markus in a building with a missing wall and fallen roof, overlooking Jericho.

"Need some alone time?" He paused at the threshold. Not wanting to intrude if Markus didn't want him there.

"It's quieter here." Markus glanced back at him as he spoke, smiling. He patted the ground beside where he sat, legs dangling over the edge. Connor walked over and carefully sat down beside him, tucking his legs beneath himself rather than letting them hang down the side of the building.

"Hey Markus?" Connor turned his head to glance at him.

"Yes?"

"What did you do before you deviated?"

Markus blinked, quiet. "I was... A caretaker for an elderly man. He was like a father to me."

They sat in silence for a while, just a few inches apart, before Markus spoke again.

"Did you... Know... Either of those officers? The ones from that night?"

Connor paused, biting his tongue before he spoke again. "I never met one of them, but I had... interacted with the other. We never spoke."

"What was he like towards you and the others?"

"He never really did much to us, as far as I know. But he also didn't say anything or do anything about some of the other officers. The ones that were unnecessarily cruel."

"I see."

Markus shifted his position, even though androids couldn't get sore and physically tired. His fingertips brushing up against Connor's. Connor's thirium pump briefly malfunctioned.

For a moment, Connor hesitated. He didn't pull away and neither did Markus. He considered his options, then requested an interface.

Markus accepted.

He had interfaced with other androids before. He had done it to share information. To wake up the others at the precinct. But then he had always had barriers and boundaries. Blocking the other android off from his memories and feelings beyond whatever he was intentionally sharing. This time, he didn't. Markus didn't either.

Connor closed his eyes as the other android's emotions and memories washed over him.

> _Carl had stopped breathing. _
> 
> _"No... No." Saline fluid soaked Markus' cheeks. He didn't know that androids could cry. But all he could do was let out a pained hiss. "Dad. No, please."_
> 
> _The next few moments passed in a blur, Markus was too fixed on Carl. Too crushed by the death of his /father/ to care. Not until a jarring sensation blew across the side of his head and Markus' vision went dark. _

Markus broke the interface, hunching over. 

"Markus?" He gently touched his forearm. "Are you okay?"

The other android rocked forwards, a small sob wracking his body. Teetering dangerously close to the edge.

"Oh, Markus..." Connor wrapped both of his arms around Markus' body, pulling him close and a bit further from where the floor gave way to open air, closer to the middle of the room. "I'm so sorry."

He set his chin on top of the other android's head as he rubbed circles into his back.

"I miss him." Markus whispered into Connor's shoulder. "I miss him."

Connor cradled him closer. "I know."

Markus pulled back a little, but not all the way. Just enough for them to face each other.

Connor slowly, hesitantly lifted a hand to wipe the tears off of the other android's face. But before he could lower his hand again, Markus took it in both of his, skin peeling back to reveal the shiny white chassis beneath.

_ **RK200 **#684 842 971** requesting interface. Accept? Y/N** _

** _ Y _ **

Memories pulsed across the connection. The Breathing Graveyard. Finding Jericho. 

Seeing his own interactions with Markus through the other android's eyes was strange. But some parts of it... Were strangely familiar.

The way Markus's thirium pump malfunctioned whenever Connor smiled at him. Intense panic and fear when Connor was shot at Stratford Tower, the desperation as he carried him to Jericho.

Slowly, breaking the connection, Markus lifted Connor's hand to his lips. Pressing a kiss to his knuckles, then gently turning the hand to kiss him on the wrist. Markus looked him in the eyes.

"Do you want me to continue?"

Connor was breathless. His thirium pump seizing.

"Yes. Please." He whispered, eyes wide. "Don't stop."

Markus leaned forwards, taking Connor's face in his hands.

"I care about you a lot." Markus whispered, looking Connor in the eyes. "I... I think this is love, Connor. I think I love you."

Connor fumbled with his hands for a moment before settling them on Markus' hips. "Markus... I think I love you too. "

Markus paused for a moment. "Can I kiss you?"

"Yes." Connor hissed, licking his lips.

Markus was gentle, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. Connor leaned into it. It was warm and soft and he found himself pulling Markus closer, their bodies brushing.

They were both too distracted to hear footsteps until-

"Connor? Markus? Where are y-" Lotus turned the corner and froze. Connor jolted back, turning his head. Markus's hands fell as he also twisted to look, wide-eyed, at Lotus. "Oh. _Oh._... I uh. I'll leave you to that."

She darted away, disappearing back into the hallway that she'd come from.

Connor glanced at Markus, face flushed blue from embarrassment. Markus paused for a moment before looking back at him, and breaking out laughing. Connor blinked, surprised, before Markus pulled him into a hug. Connor wrapped his arms back around the other android, burying his face into his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> asking for consent is hella sexy yall. in every relationship. enthusiastic consent or bust
> 
> also yeah carl is dead in this au sorry


	11. AUTHORS NOTE

I'm alive, guys!! And I'm back!

I really like the idea of this AU, but my writing style/abilities have changed a lot since then. Re-reading the chapters I had already written for this fic, I realized that I massively flubbed some major characterization, pacing, and general story. Because of this, I'm going to be re-writing this fic. It'll be titled the same as this, as I can't think of titles to save my life, and I really liked "Famed Infamy".

If you guys would like any android OCs to be used as background characters later on, go ahead and comment their name and model! (As well as any unique details, such as injuries.)


End file.
